The site is a place for those ready to move on from the debate about the appropriateness of the name; through Thurber’s website, anyone can submit new team name ideas, logo designs, and vote on ideas proposed by others. Visitors can also buy t-shirts and sweatshirts of their favorite designs; 75 percent of the sales go right back to the logo designer. (The remainder goes towards running the site.)

“The site is a referendum on what the next name and logo should be,” says Thurber, who goes by @DskinDC on Twitter. “As more logos come in and more people vote, one or two names and logos may rise to the top. For example, Redtails is a clear early favorite for the team name.” Thurber hopes that when people start wearing these fan-made designs to games, it will hopefully spark conversations about the current name and what the new name should be.

Thurber hopes DskinDC can complement the ongoing efforts to change the name. “Like many fans, I first learned about why the name is a problem because of activists and others raising awareness over decades,” he said. “The people who want to keep the name have been very vocal, but there are plenty of fans and others who think the name should change but who don’t choose to take to Twitter or to participate in activism around it. DskinDC is a place for those fans to show they’re ready for a change.”

In Thurber’s mind, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ the name will change, but ‘when.’ “Over the last few years, I’ve become embarrassed by the team name – and I’m a lifelong fan of Washington football. I thought it might be fun and useful to jump right to the question of what the new name and logo should be.”

But he’s also very cognizant of the debate and the supporters’ common argument points, such as ‘why this, when there’s more important things to address for Indians?’ Says Thurber: “I know that Native communities face a lot of hard problems, and those problems clearly need this country’s attention and commitment. I don’t see why that means we can’t solve the easy problems too. Here’s an easy problem to solve: eliminating a Native stereotype from one of this country’s most prominent sports teams.”

The American Psychological Association stated almost a decade ago that Native American stereotypes that are depicted in mascotry and monikers hurt Natives and non-Natives alike. More recently, the Center for American Progress released a report that showed the detrimental effects of these stereotypes on Native youth, including high rates of suicide, poor graduation rates, and low self esteem.

“Growing up, my images of Native people came mostly from watching DC football, with the rest coming from U.S. history class and a few Westerns,” says Thurber. “I’ve only been acquaintances with one Native person in my life, and I think most people I know have had a similar experience. In my life, Natives as people have been almost invisible. If a significant group of Natives are hurt by my football team’s name and logo, I’m willing to change them.”

Despite the claims made by the team’s PR spin machine and alumni supporters, a significant number of Native associations, not to mention individuals, are against the team’s current name. But as Thurber sees it, it’s not about numbers. “Debating the exact count of Natives who do and don’t support the name can be a distraction,” he says. “You can just look at what’s at stake. If we stick with ‘Redskins,’ we hold onto a stereotype that offends a significant number of people. If we change the name, we have to get new jerseys. In either case, it’s still DC football, Sundays are still great, and we will still talk fondly of the second quarter of Super Bowl XXII.”

DskinDC.org founder Brian Thurber

Thurber made it clear, though, that this is not about abolishing the franchise of DC football. “We’ll always have a football team we love,” he says. “Two weeks ago on ESPN First Take, Chris Cooley said we shouldn’t change the name because if we do then we’re admitting that we’ve been insensitive or even racist. That’s just not how life works. When people make a positive change, no one attacks them for it. People applaud it. For almost my whole life I referred to the team as the ‘Redskins,’ and I certainly don’t look back and think I’m a bad person.

“I know fans who like the name don’t mean any harm, but there’s something very real at stake that needs to be taken seriously. Vague notions of ‘history’ or ‘tradition’ aren’t going to cut it. If we always stuck with what we did in the past, this country would never have faced up, for example, to the impact of Jim Crow laws.

“Defenders of the name often ask where the complaints have been all these years and why they’re only surfacing now. In fact, people have been raising awareness around this issue for at least four decades. That aside, the defenders forget that values and language have always been changing in this country and that without such change, civil rights would not have advanced in ways that now seem obvious. In the context of the name debate, local artist Gregg Deal has referred to their argument as denying ‘progression of thought’ to Natives. We have to give other people and society space to change and improve.”

With DskinDC.org, Thurber hopes to provide one avenue to take towards that improvement.

“The debate is over about the R-word; it’s now about whether if it’s proper to have a football team in this country carry on using a defined slur.” That was the closing statement by Jacqueline Pata, the Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). Her comment capped off a forum at the Center for American Progress, Missing the Point: The Real Impact of Native Mascots and Team Names on American Indian and Alaska Native Youth. The Center released a new report that examined several bodies of research about the harmful impact of mascot representations on the self-esteem of AI/AN youth, how they create a hostile learning environment, and the decades-long movement to retire them. The report by Erik Stegman and Victoria Phillips looks at recent key findings and incorporates statements from several Native youths, providing context that is relevant today regarding the use of these mascots and imagery.

Sitting on today’s panel was Pata; Travis Waldron, Sports Reporter, ThinkProgress.org; Mark Macarro, Chairman, Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians; Dr. Michael Friedman, Clinical Psychologist; and Erik Stegman, Associate Director, Center for American Progress. The forum started with very poignant remarks by fifteen-year-old Dahkota Franklin Kicking Bear Brown, a student at Argonaut High School in California, and a Champion for Change at the Center for Native American Youth. Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) also spoke briefly at the event.

Over the last year, the debate over the use of the slur by the Washington professional football team has largely centered on issues of economics and fan nostalgia. The larger issue at hand, however, is beyond the sports soundbites that dominate this discussion. Data and research now shows that the use of such racist and derogatory team names (and by association, ‘traditions’ and fan antics) have real and detrimental effects on Native youth today. With fifty percent of the Native population being of 25 years of age or younger, the danger of perpetuating this practice and continuing the cycle of defeatism, hostile learning environments, and poor self-esteem is all too real. Continue reading →

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian opened its doors this past weekend to a new exhibition, “A Song for the Horse Nation.” The exhibition, nestled on the third floor of the museum, tells the epic tale of the how the return of the horse to the Americas changed Native culture, from lifestyle to war to art and beyond. “For some Native peoples, the horse still is an essential part of daily life,” said exhibit curator Emil Her Many Horses (Ogala Lakota). “For others, the horse will always remain an element of our identity and our history. The Horse Nation continues to inspire, and Native artists continue to celebrate the horse in our songs, our stories, and our works of art.”

To walk the exhibit’s path is to walk side by side with the conjoined path of Native and horse. Though horses were introduced to the Native Americans relatively late in North American history—the early 1700s saw the initial widespread explosion of the horse from captured Spanish mounts in the southwest—the image of Indians astride these graceful animals is one that is common to modern Americans. The “Horse Nation” quickly entwined themselves with Native communities, forever altering tribal culture and the Indian way of life.

The Smithsonian’s exhibit seeks to give us a view into that not-so-distant past. But it’s more than just a simply history lesson: subtly but surely, “A Song for the Horse Nation” reveals how interwoven both horse and man became among 38 tribal communities from the Plains and Western United States. The horse was more than a beast of burden or a tool; the animal became a part of Native culture that still resonates among the people today. Continue reading →

out of the earth / I sing for them
A Horse nation / I sing for them
out of the earth / I sing for them,
the animals / I sing for them.
~a song by the Teton Sioux

Emil Her Many Horses is, by first appearance, a quiet, unassuming gentleman. A museum specialist in the office of Museum Programs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), he is responsible for the facility’s latest exhibition “A Song for the Horse Nation.” A member of the Ogala Lakota nation of South Dakota, his expertise on the Northern and Southern Plains cultures is well served and seen in the exhibit that opens to the public tomorrow.

NMAI’s latest offering is a touching and brilliant display of how the horse has deeply impacted and affected Native cultures since their introduction to the Americas in the 17th century. “The exhibit tells the history of the horse; that they were here once before, migrated to Europe, and returned as the horse we know today,” explained Her Many Horses. “They changed Native culture. The horse had a major impact on hunting, warfare, travel, spirituality. These were big changes.” Changes that extend beyond the European vision of the animal.

Seen as a beast of burden, a tool, a weapon, the horse was brought and used by European explorers and colonists early in America’s “New World” history. And their introduction, according to many Natives, was probably one of the biggest positive changes brought about by the white man.

Kicking off last night at the National Museum of the American Indian is a special exhibit about our 50th state, Hawai’i. The exhibition, “This IS Hawai’i” is a collaboration between NMAI and Transformer, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit visual arts organization. Together, they present a multisite exhibition featuring new and experimental works of art that explore what it means to be Hawaiian in the 21st century. The artwork includes sculpture, action figures, drawings, an interactive website and a fictional work titled “Post-Historic Museum of the Possible Aboriginal Hawaiian.” The work of Maika’i Tubbs will be presented at Transformer, opening day Saturday, May 21, and the work of Solomon Enos and Carl F. K. Pao will be presented at the NMAI’s Sealaska Gallery, with artist Puni Kukahiko’s outdoor sculptures presented at both sites. The exhibition is presented in tandem with the museum’s annual Hawai’i Festival, which is this weekend.

There are other events planned around this exhibit through Memorial Day weekend, including the museum’s popular Dinner and a Movie, live performances, a fellowship dance, and interactive discussions. All of the events are free at the museum.

Ask someone on the street about Native American history and more often than not, they’ll most likely recall the “Thanksgiving story,” the Indian Wars of the late nineteenth century, “Custer’s Last Stand,” or probably the (abysmal) movie Dances With Wolves. It’s an era of our nation’s history that I think many know little about – or choose to look the other way – and I cannot blame them for it. It’s not a pretty period of history, nor is it exactly the United States’ most proudest collection of moments.

When I saw the National Museum of the American Indian’s (NMAI) press release regarding the variety of activities in celebration of Native American Indian Heritage Month, one of the events that caught my eye was today’s lecture with NMAI Director Kevin Gover and museum historian Mark Hirsch. They were speaking regarding a book the Smithsonian released last year, American Indians, American Presidents: A History, edited by Clifford E. Trafzer. While I couldn’t attend the lecture, I had wanted to interview both Director Gover and Mr. Hirsch regarding the book and its impact but despite both NMAI and my best efforts, we couldn’t quite make things work out.

Nonetheless, I decided to forge ahead with a look at this book – even though it was released last year – for a variety of reasons. Native American history is a subject very close to me, for starters, and is an era of history I feel is mostly glossed over in classrooms. The struggle of Native Americans during this country’s formation and rise to power is something that cannot be ignored and, I believe, contains lessons for our future as a nation and as a people.

So I asked NMAI for a copy of the book, eager to see what new perspectives awaited within. And…I was left wanting. Continue reading →